greens

[asakiyume]

A guy I follow on Twitter is doing a couple of polls about greens (the things you eat, not the members of the political party... I mean if you're a cannibal that distinction might not be valid but I suspect for most of you it is, plus--no capitalization!)

Here is a link.

For those of you as click-averse as I am, there are two groups of greens:

First group:

chard
collards
kale
spinach

Second group:

beet greens
cress
mustard greens
turnip greens

You have to choose your favorite for cooking in each group. (You can go vote if you want--it will add a new dimension to his polling base.)

So .... do you all have favorites? Opinions? Beloved recipes? I cook spinach, kale, and beet greens; I have cooked mustard greens now and then, and sometimes chard. I did not know you could *eat* turnip greens--it's an exciting new piece of information.

Comments

[pameladean]

Swiss chard is ALL OVER vegetarian recipes of a certain vintage, but I have trouble finding it in Minnesota. My favorite from the first group is just a tie between kale and collards. I often go with kale because it doesn't take so long to cook.

For the second group, the only ones I've tried are mustard greens. Long ago I used to make a pot pie in which mustard greens were a major ingredient; the protein component was kidney beans, plus the whole wheat biscuit crust. I lost the recipe and nothing I can find online is quite right. But it gave me the idea of looking for curried mustard greens and kidney beans, which is very tasty and less work than a pot pie.

P.

[asakiyume]

I like kale because of its body--it's got a good pushback when you're chewing. And I cook a lot of spinach, using a very simple recipe I learned in Japan. Chard I used to cook when I grew it myself. In the second group, I cook most often beet greens; I like them a whole lot. But mustard greens are a good second, and I like this idea of curried mustard greens and kidney beans--must try that! And a friend over on the LJ side of things had a good idea for cooking turnip greens.

[kore]

Ooh, what recipe?

I like using kale in place of spinach in some recipes, because it holds up longer and doesn't get slimy or mushy.

[asakiyume]

very simple: boil water and pour this water over fresh spinach in a sieve or colander. That's all the cooking. Then squeeze the extra water out of the spinach. It'll be hot, so use a towel or something. Then chop it up, then sprinkle soy sauce and a dash of hot pepper on it, then top with sesame oil and, if you're feeling fancy, some sesame seeds. So delicious.

[kore]

Thank you! Wow, that sounds simple and super tasty.

[pameladean]

Thanks from me too! It's like a dish I often get at Japanese restaurants if I don't think there are enough vegetables in my dinner.

P.

[asakiyume]

My pleasure!

[larryhammer]

Yum.

[pameladean]

Yes, you're right about kale -- it's got body but it's seldom tough.

Beet greens are expensive hereabouts, for whatever reason, which is why I default to mustard. But I like them too; I like their bite.

P.

[asakiyume]

Yes, I like that about mustard greens too!

PS-recipes of a certain vintage

[asakiyume]

Aren't food fads funny! I wonder if chard's popularity at the time had to do with people--like me--growing their own. I think it must not transport well or something, because you can get it in farmers markets, but I rarely see it in supermarkets.

Re: PS-recipes of a certain vintage

[pameladean]

I wouldn't be at all surprised, when I think of the cookbooks where chard is rampant. I like it quite a bit, and would grow it if I ever get it together to have a vegetable garden again.

I seem to recall getting some in the CSA share of some friends who passed it on to us because they were going out of town, now that you mention it, which bolsters your theory.

P.

[boxofdelights]

When you say cooking, do you mean any kind of food prep, or only the kind that involves altering the food by heating it? I think spinach is my favorite to eat of the first group, but if we're excluding raw uses it might be kale.

I never eat any of the second group!

This year I tried growing a new plant called kalettes. I think it is a cross between kale and brussels sprouts. All summer it grew a bigger and bigger stalk, with enormous leathery kale leaves. It promised tiny tender heads of kale in the leaf axils, where brussels sprouts would be, but I had almost given up hope when they finally showed up in November. I'm still harvesting a few now, after several snows and many bitter cold nights. They are both tender and nutty. Definitely worth garden space!

[asakiyume]

I think raw is legit!

That plant kalettes sounds very cool--fresh greens in the winter for the win!

[cgbookcat1]

Kalettes sound delicious! Do you think they'd grow well in a 2ft x 2 ft x 2ft container? My only gardening space right now is a porch and I love the idea of harvesting into December and January.

[kore]

Group one: YUM! I really love rainbow chard and purple kale. Spinach and chard, mmmmm.

Group two: PTUI PTUI PTUI BLECH

[asakiyume]

Hahaha, food inspires such strong reactions, right?

The guy who posted the poll really dislikes kale and loves turnip greens!

[kore]

I also HATE beets, so "beets anything" gets an extra UGH from me. //only Hungarian in the world who hates borscht

[asakiyume]

I do like beets, but I don't cook them much because no one else in the family does!

I also adore parsnips. When my third child was still at home, she was a parsnip ally, but alas, now it's just me and my husband, I'm not likely to make parsnips. Maybe when he goes on a trip....

[kore]

Ooh, those are good chopped up and roasted, yeah, with turnips and carrots and potatoes.

[asakiyume]

Exactly! So good roasted.

[amaebi]

I feared beets and thought I disliked them, but I planted some and had them at Chun Woo's request and realized it was just those odious tinned or pickled ones that were brandished at me at terrifying church potlucks when I was a child.

I also thought I disliked spinach as a child-- all I encountered was served at school lunches, from tins. I first liked it when I encountered it raw in salads. (Revealingly, to my mind, my mother viewed spinach salad as a Great Test of a restaurant, because it was so prone to sand. Washing always dominated taste, for my mother.)

I love parsnips, but pretty much as an alongside to flesh.

[ivy]

I cook nothing, I eat all of those if cooked. Never met a leafy green I didn't like.

[asakiyume]

When you say you cook nothing but you eat all of these if cooked, does that mean you buy them cooked or have someone obliging who cooks them for you?

I agree: I eat all of these cooked too.

[ivy]

I will joyfully order them in restaurants, but unfortunately I no longer have anyone who cooks for me.

They are delicious!

[asakiyume]

Got it! Makes sense :-)

[rachelmanija]

All bitter greens are good with bacon.

[asakiyume]

This is absolutely true!

ETA: And I like eating any such combo.

[threemeninaboat]

I grow and cook all of those but am oft plagued by "kale lice."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevicoryne_brassicae

[asakiyume]

Ooo, nasty little critters--well, nasty if you're hoping to get a good batch of kale, anyway.

The times I've tried to grow kale, my problem has been tired soil rather than kale lice, but I've had problems like that with other vegetables. Gardening, man. It's heartbreak.

[amaebi]

Heartbreak unless you develop a cheery and accustomed relationship with death.

[asakiyume]

It's also not an activity that puts up with procrastination: you need to do a thing in its season or you're going to miss your chance.

[amaebi]

Some things are more copacetic than others, but yeah. And greens are copacetic! (Tropical fruiting things like tomatoes and peppers are not.)

[ivy]

Have you tried lasagna mulching for a couple years on top of the problem area? That worked wonders for me on uncertain soil.

[asakiyume]

I always have great **intentions** to try things like this, but I've rarely carried them out in practice. For instance, I have a couple of compost bins in the backyard, but I've rarely brought the compost up and, y'know, actually put it on the garden, and when I have, I haven't done so very thickly. A couple of times when I was gardening more earnestly, I went to horse farms and filled bags with old manure to bring back. I'm kind of at peace with it though: I know I'm getting out of it what I put in, and that if I put in more--well, I could still have a bad outcome because: agriculture, but--I'd get more out.

[minoanmiss]

Oh, this discussion makes me hungry. Maybe I can convince He Who Shops to buy me some kale (and not the chopped prepackaged kind -- they chop up the stems too, it's a mess, and he always tries to get that unless I insist).

In Jamaica we have "callaloo" (amaranth greens) which are sturdier than spinach but juicier than kale or collards. During the summer TL sometimes buys them for me from farmer's markets.

[amaebi]

I had forgot the soup called callaloo! Where on earth did I use to have that? It was when I was living in St. Catharines, but that's all I can remember.

I would think toward making some, but Colorado is not truly a good enough place to buy crab for it to make sense.

[asakiyume]

I can source amaranth greens from empty lots around here; I remember learning they were edible and good. I'm sure actual cultivated amaranth produces bigger leaves (like cultivated dandelions produce bigger leaves--it always cracks me up, though, to see dandelion greens for sale).

[minoanmiss]

Dandelions originally came to the US as salad greens, they just ran away into the wild. Once I learned that I couldn't help but envision dandelion fairies with hobo packs running away from cultivated gardens.

[asakiyume]

Fairy Johny Dandelionseeds :-)

It's worth an illustration....

[cgbookcat1]

The top five I make and eat regularly. The bottom three are difficult to find in my area.

My favorite kales are the dinosaur or red Russian types, sautéed with olive oil, wine vinegar, and onion and served with a poached egg on top and toast on the side.

[asakiyume]

Mmm, I think the next time I cook kale, I'll try this. Sounds delicious.

[amaebi]

Group 1: All but collards, though I should confess that I don't wet-cook kale. Second group: All of them, but I don't apply heat to cress.

There is at least one turnip-- Tokyo Cross-- which is intended primarily as a source of turnip greens. But since I love its dear little pearly turnip part I grow them for that as well.

[asakiyume]

When you say you don't wet-cook kale, what does that mean? Does frying count as wet cooking?

Re turnips: gotta love a plant you can eat all of!

Tangentially related: and then there are the plants where you can eat them in one form or another, but not both. When I grew more things, I liked growing snow peas--for the pea pods. But my Cambodian neighbor likes eating the tendrils and blossoms ... I mean I suppose if you didn't eat **all** the tendrils and blossoms, you could then eat some snow pea pods later. Kind of like waiting to eat the leaves of your turnips until you're ready also to harvest the root.

[amaebi]

Well, I really meant that I have not liked kale stewed with pork and/or pork fat. Myself, I make kale chips and use young kale in salads.

I love both snow peas and pea shoots. *swoon*

[asakiyume]

I like kale chips! A friend showed me how to make them--easy and tasty.

[larryhammer]

I just cooked chard last night, and it was the clear obvious one to pull out and use, so that's an easy ticky. The second, I usually prefer beet greens over the others, but it's been a while since I've done any of them -- not since we left the CSA.

The chard, I did the usual stir-frying with onions and olive oil, plus some protein (in this case, peanuts), for serving on top of the evening's carb base (spaghetti this time). Time was, I'd've mixed it in with the noodles, but TBD, being 4, has Strong Feelings about having the sauce of whatever variety on the side.

[asakiyume]

Yum! Plain old stir fry is delicious. And I'm smiling about TBD and remembering the classic Roz Chast cartoon about the childhood house of horrors: one of the things it contains is the plate of food where the items are touching each other.

[larryhammer]

TBD is disappointed that it is impossible both a) have the components of a soup served separately and b) still have a soup.

[asakiyume]

Poor TBD. It's like wanting it to be soup, only dry--although actually, that would be easier: she could munch on unreconstituted ramen.

[larryhammer]

TBD does, actually -- while the rest of the package is cooking.

Ramen from a plate, even if it's nominally there just to cool it, is preferred from eating directly from the bowl. (Though last night, in a restaurant, they did eventually stop pulling it out and ate from the soup. They also, wonder of wonders, ate half the charshu pork.)

[sovay]

So .... do you all have favorites?

Collards forever! After that, I am surprisingly fond of chard and spinach, so long as all of these are cooked past the point where they taste bitter enough to die from. I don't think I have ever eaten beet or turnip greens, although I know you can.

[asakiyume]

You've never eaten beet greens, and I've never eaten collard greens! We need to cook for each other.